Zachary Lazar's new novel Sway

Few recent novels have been received with so much critical acclaim as Sway:

“Zachary Lazar’s superb second novel, Sway, reads like your parents’ nightmare idea of what would happen to you if you fell under the spell of rock ‘n’ roll…Elegant and intricate…this brilliant novel is about what’s to be found in the shadows… ”
– Charles Taylor, New York Times Book Review

“One hypnotic tone poem…. It is not the now-historic acts of violence that make Swayso riveting, but its vivid character portraits and decadent, muzzy atmosphere, all rendered with the heightened sensory awareness associated with drugs and paranoia. The near miniaturist precision with which he describes Keith Richards’s attempts to master his guitar, Brian Jones’s acid trips and Anger’s obsessive desire for Beausoleil bring this large-scale tableau into stunning relief.”
– Liz Brown, Time Out New York

“Joseph Conrad said that fiction is primarily a visual art; he would have loved Zachary Lazar’s Sway for the thousand indelible visual details of a startling originality—and for Lazar’s ability to shine a light into the contemporary heart of darkness.”
- Edmund White, author of A Boy’s Own Story

“The novel moves swiftly, and Lazar handles the numerous segues from one story to another with a veteran film editor’s finesse…. The ending has a powerful kick, and we’re still hearing its echoes. A skillful dramatization of the consequences of making and inhabiting your own world. The Stones ought to write a song about it.”
- Kirkus Reviews